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CMN 100

Professional Health Communication

This workshop course is designed for students studying in diverse health disciplines, including social work, public health, and occupational health to build interdisciplinary communication proficiency in professional contexts. The course explores the complex relationships between communicators, audiences, and varying discursive practices. Students will be introduced to fundamental concepts of rhetoric, document design, professional writing, research, and analysis and use them to persuasively communicate discipline-specific information and goals to diverse audiences.

Service Course

CMN 114

Short Management Reports

This writing intensive workshop course helps students gain the proficiency needed to meet the reporting demands of the contemporary workplace. Participants will learn to analyze their audience and purpose while writing informative and persuasive documents such as instructional reports, personnel reports, informal proposals, and analytical reports. A module on planning, delivering professionally related oral presentations to peers, management and industry partners completes this workshop course.

Service Course

CMN 200

The Craft of Professional Writing

This course introduces students to genres and styles of professional writing across organizations and industries. Considering the planning, process, and production of communication texts in professional and creative settings, topics include the variety of written professional texts, audience analysis, message purpose, selection of medium and channel, the editing/revision process, and collaborative writing. This course gives students creative and conceptual tools to develop theoretical and strategic approaches to professional writing.

ProCom BA, Year 1

CMN 210

Text, Image, and Sound

In contemporary culture, we are surrounded by media and artifacts that attempt to persuade us to buy, believe or behave in certain ways. This course provides students with the analytical tools to understand the ways that text, image and sound work together to create persuasive objects. Using concepts from a wide range of theoretical frameworks related to communication, this course focuses on the design and use of media and messages in contemporary culture and the ways that text, image, and sound interact to create meaningful experiences.

ProCom BA, Year 1

CMN 211

Language and Power

Powerful texts such as influential news stories, government policies and legal decisions help shape our lives. Using concepts from critical discourse analysis, this course introduces students to the basic analytical vocabulary and tools to understand ways that powerful texts work. Students will learn to identify the linguistic techniques that characterize the important documents that affect our social worlds. They will have opportunities to respond to these texts.

ProCom BA, Year 1

CMN 215

Messages, Modalities, and Media

The ability to interpret messages across modalities and media critically is fundamental to the transformation of information into meaningful knowledge. Using principles of discourse analysis and incorporating a range of examples and exercises, students will learn to identify, select, evaluate, and synthesize written and oral messages in ways that recognize the embeddedness of the interpretive process within its larger ethical, social, political and technological dimensions.

ProCom BA, Year 2

CMN 216

Communication Revolutions

Both old and new communication technologies, through “revolutions” or epochs of change, have transformed modern culture. From the origins of language and the invention of communication technologies, such as writing, the printing press and the Internet, this course explores the origins, reception and uses of new forms of communication in their historical contexts with attention to their social, political, cognitive and technological impacts.

ProCom BA, Year 1

CMN 222

Digital Discourse and Design

Through a combination of writing and design assignments, lectures and discussions, this course explores the practical and theoretical consequences of the creation, delivery, and reception of texts in digital spaces and discusses effective digital writing principles and techniques. The implications of visual and interaction design are examined as they affect digital communication. Students will have the opportunity to work with digital technologies and to critique a range of online texts. 

ProCom BA, Year 2

CMN 225

Communication in Place

Where does communication happen? This course examines how place and environment shape the communicative practice. Using concepts from rhetoric, cultural studies and various communication theories, students will develop an understanding of the “communication environment,” and how to consider environmental constraints and factors when constructing meaningful messages for audiences. The course uses examples from popular culture, economics, politics, architecture, science, and technology to help students understand the importance of place in the process of communication.  

Core Electives, ProCom BA

CMN 230

Trans Studies and Communication

This course introduces students to trans issues through an intersectional approach to media analysis and gender studies. Intersectionality provides a theoretical framework to investigate the overlapping experiences of multiple forms of oppression, as well as ongoing resistance to state violence through decolonization and anti-racist activism. Students uncover how trans media production influences health communication and medical access narratives. Students will analyze trans communication in the workplace, in visual culture, and in emerging media creation.

Core Electives, ProCom BA

CMN 269

Countercultural Communication

This course examines the complex relationships between conventional and countercultural communication practices. Investigating countercultural forms, spaces, and acts such as graffiti, comix, memes, zines, culture jamming, body modification, viral videos, and others, the course considers how novel and often subversive communication practices influence and alter conventional forms. Countercultural communication can drive innovation; its original voices, forms, practices and idioms can be adapted and applied to bring new life and power to conventional contexts and forms. 

Core Electives, ProCom BA

CMN 279

Introduction to Professional Communication

This case-based, interactive course introduces students to contemporary strategies of successful communication in professional contexts. Students learn how to analyze audience, situation, and medium to create messages that respond to practical challenges and build productive relationships. Students develop sensitivity to language and tone, learn to organize and convey ideas and information, and select the best means to accomplish their intended purposes.

ProCom Minor, Service Course

CMN 288

Communication and Social Media

Social media provides new opportunities for organizations to build relationships and engage audiences as co-creators through strategic use of relevant platforms to achieve persuasive and participatory communication goals. Students will study communication theory, promotional genres, and social media to understand the principles, benefits and ethics of these interactive, mobile, and immediate communication forms. This course integrates theory and practice; students will demonstrate their understanding of course content through their engagement with social media.

Core Electives, ProCom BA, ProCom Minor

CMN 300

Communication in the Computer Industry

In this workshop course, students learn to present technical information to audiences with a range of technical knowledge. The course teaches students various forms and content strategies relevant to the computer industry so they can communicate clearly and persuasively in online and traditional media. Students analyze and respond to professional situations involving documentation plans, style guides, usability testing and project planning. 

ProCom Minor, Service Course

CMN 304

Career Advancement Communication

This course aims to develop the communication skills and strategies necessary to meet the challenges of the current workplace. With particular focus on the job search and career development, course content covers such topics as research and interviewing, persuasive writing and speaking, developing a professional image and making effective communication decisions.

Core Electives, ProCom BA

CMN 305

Strategic Public Relations in Professional Communication

This course examines the principles and application of effective public relations. Students will study the concepts underlying public relations and how to employ them in strategic planning, image management, advocacy, and media interaction. Pedagogy will be case-based and include simulation activities. 

Core Electives, ProCom BA

CMN 306

Risk and Crisis Communication

All organizations must manage risk and crisis in order to avoid damage or ruin. This course investigates the components of risk and crisis management and the channels and media available to communicate related messages to an organization’s audiences. Using case studies and practical applications, students will understand and analyze the process of perceiving, handling, and communicating about risk and crisis and gain experience in these areas through simulation. 

Core Electives, ProCom BA

CMN 313

Organizational Report Writing

Organizational report writing focuses on the selection, treatment and solution of a complex problem in an organization, through the development and preparation of a formal, analytical report. Students learn to propose solutions to an identifiable problem, customize a message for multiple audiences, create a work plan, apply primary and secondary research methods, and structure an argument logically and persuasively. Students will strengthen their critical thinking skills as they evaluate findings and formulate conclusions and recommendations.

Core Electives, ProCom BA

CMN 314

Professional Presentations

Successful professionals achieve their objectives by consistently designing and delivering meaningful presentations to diverse, demanding audiences. Students learn to structure content coherently, develop poise and confidence, and employ technology in a sophisticated way to connect with their listeners.

ProCom BA, Year 2

CMN 315

Issues in Organizational Communication

Effective communication has always been an essential component of business. It is particularly important today, when business people communicate in increasingly complex and diverse workplaces. They must deal with ethical dilemmas, intensifying organizational change, global and multicultural partners, increased specialization, and constant technological developments. Using practical examples and case studies, this course both explores communication challenges that business professionals face today and helps them develop strategies and practices designed for the contemporary workplace.

ProCom BA, Year 3
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